Film Critic Judith Crist to Speak
at Professional Women's Networking Event

Film critic Judith Crist (The New York Herald Tribune, NBC-TV's Today Show, TV Guide), now an Adjunct Professor at the Columbia School of Journalism, will be the special guest speaker at a Blatant Self-Interest Networking Event sponsored by the New York Coalition of Professional Women in the Arts & Media on Wednesday, January 22, 2003 at 6 p.m. at The Players, 16 Gramercy Park South (20th Street and Park Avenue South).

A self-described "movie-nut" from the time she was a child, Ms. Crist remembers sneaking off to the movies when she was supposed to be studying or swimming at the Y. The first film she ever saw was Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush and it remains her "most vivid film experience." She wanted to write film criticism from the time she was ten years old, and although she was a reporter for The New York Herald Tribune, working in various capacities for 18 years, it wasn't until the New York newspaper strike in 1962 that her dream began to turn into reality. She was among a group of reporters who defected to television where she was spotted by the producer of the Today Show. She began a ten year affiliation with Today about the same time that the newspaper strike ended and she became the Tribune's movie critic. During a somewhat stormy career, she was banned from screenings by both Warner Brothers and Fox for writing scathing reviews of their films, and director Billy Wilder commented that "Having Judith Crist review your movie is like asking the Boston strangler to massage your neck." At the same time, however, critic Roger Ebert noted, "The high profile of film critics actually can be traced to Judith Crist at The New York Herald Tribune in the early '60s." Through the Today Show and her 21 years of reviews in TV Guide, Judith Crist became a household name in America. She has been teaching at Columbia University for almost 40 years.

The New York Coalition of Professional Women in the Arts & Media was organized in 1990 to work for the advancement of women in the performing arts and media industries. This networking event has been one of its most popular and successful activities for several years, as participants have found jobs, contacts, apartments and friends as a result of their attendance.

Affiliates of the Coalition include: American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, Dramatists Guild, League of Professional Theatre Women/NY, NY Women in Film & Television, Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation, and the Women's Committees of Actors' Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild of America, East.

Pre-paid admission to the Blatant Self-Interest Networking Event is $10. Checks postmarked by January 17, 2003 may be sent to The New York coalition of Professional women in the Arts & Media, Inc., P.O. Box 2537, Times Square Station, New York, NY 10036 ATTN: Networking Event. Tickets may be purchased at the door for $15.